CALGARY - The Wildrose party is looking for a new candidate in Calgary.

Leader Brian Jean said in a statement that the party received a vetting package on Wednesday on some candidates and now is seeking a new candidate in Calgary Varsity.

Russ Kuykendall was going to be the candidate in that riding.

Jean says Wildrose wants candidates that will protect the rights of all Albertans.

The statement did not say why the party decided against Kuykendall, but in 2007, Kuykendall wrote a blog criticizing a gay pride brunch that was held in a Catholic church hall.

"Evidently, whoever rented the hall on behalf of the event was not entirely forthcoming with the parish priest and administration as to what event would convene," Kuykendall wrote on June 27, 2007.

"Then, apparently anticipating (wanting?) trouble, the event organizers arranged for two uniformed members of the Edmonton Police Service to be posted at the entrance to the hall.

"The message that appears to be sent to Catholic Christians who don't accept this "lifestyle" as acceptable is that "equality" means that gay activists can take their agenda not just to your front door, but inside the door to places that are consecrated to the Catholic faith, with uniformed police officers (!) exercising state coercion to defend that right!"

In the 2012 provincial election, Wildrose appeared to be on the road to winning when it was derailed by controversies that included comments by one of its candidates who, in a blog, had urged gays to repent or face an eternity in hell's "lake of fire.''